Gillibrand, Tonko seek more cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson

[TexasTowelie]

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and six Congress members from New York are pushing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare more work is needed on the $1.7 billion PCB cleanup of the Hudson River.

In a letter Wednesday to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Gillibrand and the other lawmakers said the seven-year cleanup, which concluded in the summer of 2015, failed to reach the goals of a 2002 agreement between EPA and General Electric Co.

GE dredged about 40 miles of river bottom between Fort Edward in Washington County and Troy in Rensselaer County to remove toxic PCBs. The company had legally dumped PCBs in the river from its former capacitor plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls until that became illegal in the late 1970s.

The lawmakers’ letter criticized a draft EPA report issued this summer that found the cleanup will reach its goals, although it will take five decades or more, and depends in part on a natural degradation of remaining PCBs in the river.

Read more: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/278056/gillibrand-tonko-seek-more-cleanup-of-pcbs-in-the-hudson/

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Dredging was very unpopular in my neck-of-the-woods, there were "No Dredging" lawn signs everywhere

And I'm not far from Hudson Falls and Fort Edward. Kirsten was our congresswoman until 2009 so she knows the area well.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. It was only unpopular because GE spent millions on local ad campaigns

...to convince locals to oppose it. Plus many of those locals used to work for GE.

I had my cruiser on that part of the Hudson for a few seasons in the late 90's thru 2000 and film crews hired by GE in turn hired several local boaters from my marina for $3000 per weekend to allows the crews to film ducks, jumping fish, etc for GE commercials touting the notion that it was better to leave the river un-dredged as to not disturb the fish and ducks.

[Not Ruth]

5. It is better to leave the river undredged for the animals

Boaters may disagree, but their priority is not the animals, mine is

[Dennis Donovan]

6. Not if it's contained correctly during dredging

That's the part that costs a lot of $$$.

[Not Ruth]

2. The problem is that it is archeological at this point

The PCBs are buried under a lot of silt. And that part of the river has become very clean, and is a spawning environment for endangered species such as sturgeon. Removing the PCBs now will probably kill a lot of animals. I would rather see a big fine, maybe a trillion dollars, to be used as both punishment and to support the river.

[Dennis Donovan]

4. That part of the river is a navigable waterway - part of the Barge Canal system

...and it has to be dredged so it remains navigable.